The present invention relates to broadband conferencing services. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing voice and data services by coordinating standard telephone network and packet data network resources.
A majority of telephone service subscribers use analog Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) when placing ordinary voice telephone calls. POTS is often delivered over a subscriber loop of copper wires installed between each subscriber and a local telephone company (telco) central office. The telco central office contains circuit switches that interconnect subscribers and establish call connections. Typically, a circuit connection is established for each telephone call and this connection is maintained for the duration of a call.
The increased use of computers in businesses and homes has lead to an increased load on standard telephone networks. Also, video telephone conferencing is becoming a more popular and utilized tool. Data and video often require large amounts of bandwidth that are not readily available over a standard telephone line. Subscribers wishing to hold a conversation with someone while simultaneously transmitting an associated video signal or other types of data are typically limited to using separate subscriber loops or a specialized software package that encodes the data on top of the voice information.
The use of separate subscriber loops is disadvantageous due to the expense of installing the extra subscriber loop wiring and switching capabilities in the network. Further, a subscriber would need to maintain records of the telephone number for the voice connection and the telephone number of the data connection. Each number would be dialed separately when a connection was desired.
A method of communicating both voice and data information over a single subscriber loop is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,345. The disclosed method implements integrated services digital network (ISDN) facilities to carry both data and voice information over a circuit switched telephone network. Although the method used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,345 permits data and voice information over a single subscriber loop, the method is designed for end-to-end calls between the caller and called party only and does not support simultaneous voice and data to multiple parties. The disclosed ISDN embodiment requires that both the caller and called party have ISDN facilities. In addition, the voice and data communication paths are both established through dedicated circuits in the circuit switched telephone network and may impose a high demand on network resources.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of communicating both voice and data information over a single subscriber loop, providing flexible and efficient use of existing infrastructure, reducing the load on circuit switched telephone network resources, and permitting multiple parties to participate in the same voice and data communication.